Understanding Where the Magic Is (And Isn’t) in EMDR Therapy

Many new EMDR therapists misunderstand where the magic is in EMDR Therapy. Trainings and training practicum experiences often send the impression that simply following the script is likely to result in memory resolution with the vast majority of clients. EMDR can be seen as a kind of magic wand that allows us to go up to almost any person and “dink” their memory. Some trainees may be left with the impression that most of the magic in EMDR Therapy is in the bilateral alone. While this is a key part, I describe it elsewhere as one of the three wheels of the EMDR tricycle. It takes all three wheels. Otherwise drummers would be the healthiest people on the planet. And, they are not.

EMDR Therapy is a combination of activation, noticing, and left-right stimulation, but what is happening in EMDR is perfectly described in the Adaptive Information Processing model. This combination of elements helps connect old stuck information into right-now existing adaptive information… if you have enough of it. And Shapiro is very clear that if you do not have enough of the needed adaptive information for the target that you are connected to, there is nothing in the Eight-Phase Protocol that is going to generate the missing information. I have used the metaphor of a boat fishing in an ocean. The boat is the needed adaptive information and the fish you are hooked onto is the memory. You can’t land a bigger fish than your boat. You don’t simply get a bigger boat because you are hooked to a big fish. You have the boat you launched with today.

Again, the magic of EMDR Therapy is that you can metabolize almost any old stuck information into existing adaptive information and we do this by using the Eight-Phase Protocol. Inside that understanding contains the logic and the worldview to account for when this therapy doesn’t work. Many of the episodes in this podcast focus on this core understanding of the Adaptive Information Processing model. It explains almost everything beautiful in working with clients who have adaptive information the size of a cruise ship and almost everything challenging in working with clients whose adaptive information is the size of a leaky intertube. This understanding explains why parts work is an important element in what we do as trauma therapists. It explains why we need to support adaptive information about what it means to have been born human. And, why our resources need to involve more than a few core mindfulness skills when working with clients with pervasively traumatized nervous systems. This understanding is the foundation, I think, to doing EMDR Therapy really well with clients with complex trauma—who have been saturated with the tasks of surviving, rather than bumping against the world and learning who they are, what they’re worth, and how they deserve to be treated.